The NX-branded LEDs deliver 264 lm/mm², setting what Cree says is a new lumen density milestone, while the lighting business at Cree has added models of the light-guide-based RSW area-lighting luminaires.

Controls company Echelon Corp.’s new “cognitive vision” system takes a maiden voyage in the Washington trial.

AWS Marketplace, which lists over 3,800 software listings from popular software vendors across 35 product categories, has announced that customers can now contract for one, two, or three year terms for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Application Programming Interface (API) products directly through AWS Marketplace with SaaS Contracts. With this feature, buyers use a shopping-cart like experience to determine the size (number of units) and duration (length of time) for their contract. For example, they can enter how many users they want and can choose if they want to make a multi-year commitment. Buyers also have the ability to increase the size of their contract at any time, and can upgrade from a monthly term to a one, two, or three year term when needed. With the launch of SaaS Contracts on AWS Marketplace, customers can choose from more products than ever before- and sellers can offer better discounts for longer commitments.

You can now add tags to your AWS Lambda functions. Using tags, you can now add metadata to each of your functions. Each tag consists of a key and value. You can use these tags to allocate costs from your AWS bill to individual functions. There is no additional charge for tagging your Lambda functions. 

You can now develop your AWS Lambda functions using Python 3.6. This feature will become available in all AWS Lambda regions within 24 hours.

Today, AWS is announcing a new feature that enables customers to copy AWS Marketplace products directly into AWS Service Catalog. This simplifies the process by which customers can organize and control access to software they have procured or fulfilled through AWS Marketplace.

Today, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) added support for service-linked roles, a new type of role that gives you an easier and more secure way to delegate permissions to AWS services. You can start by using service-linked roles with Amazon Lex, a service that enables you to build conversational interfaces in any application using voice and text.

AWS Mobile Hub integration with Amazon Lex previously announced in preview is now generally available (GA).

AWS CodeStar enables you to quickly develop, build, and deploy applications on AWS.

You can now add a whispered speech effect in your Text-to-Speech output with Amazon Polly, and synchronize speech with visual animation using Speech Marks. To create voices with a whispered effect, you simply use the SSML tag “whispered” to mark the text input to be spoken in a hushed or whispered voice. This tag can be applied to any of the 47 voices in Amazon Polly’s Text-to-Speech portfolio. Visit the Amazon Polly documentation for more information on how to use the new “whispered” SSML tag.